[2014-12-26] CCN- Warren Buffet: “Stay Away From Bitcoin”

[panju1]

“The Oracle of Omaha,” Warren Buffet: “Stay Away From Bitcoin”

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/warren-buffet-stay-away-from-bitcoin/

Here is Warren Buffet’s view on Bitcoin, which was second on a list of his most-heeded advice for 2015 investing:

“Stay away from it. It’s a mirage, basically. … It’s a method of transmitting money. It’s a very effective way of transmitting money, and you can do it anonymously and all that. A check is a way of transmitting money, too. Are checks worth a whole lot of money just because they can transmit money? Are money orders? You can transmit money by money orders. People do it. I hope Bitcoin becomes a better way of doing it, but you can replicate it a bunch of different ways, and it will be. The idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke in my view.”

[smoothie]

Instrinsic value of check = paper and ink --> can have essentially infinite amount of them created

Instrinsic value of money order = paper and ink --> can have essentially infinite amount of them created

Intrinsic value of a bitcoin = all of the hardware/maintenance resources that keep the network working  --> can't have more than 21,000,000 of them ever created.

Mr. Warren Buffet seems to not understand bitcoin and is obviously a noob when it comes to decentralized technology. Understanding of technology isn't one of his strengths.

but I have to LOL as he supposedly is the guru of investing yet he is missing out on bitcoin (or so he says).

Remember this is the same guy that sold silver at sub $10 per ounce. 

[voephilis]

voephilis: "Stay away from Buffet as long as you are hungry"

[tins]

Besides being an inexpensive method of transferring money, he fails to address the ability to use BTC as a storage of money (or value). Checks and money orders are ONLY methods of transferring money. Their intrinsic value is that of a piece of paper. This is what Mr. Buffet is missing. Bitcoin, in itself, is the value and can be transferred along those same lines. Therefore, he is not understanding the essential difference.

[bitbouillion]

Now I am really shocked at Warren Buffet. I don't blame him for not understanding Bitcoin, but obviously he doesn't even understand the existing monetary system. He implies that Bitcoin can be completely replicated with some" magic" money order, totally ignoring that it requires expensive infrastructure consisting of central banks, commercial banks, accounting, contracts, collateral and physical exchange of collateral to make an electronic money order working.

[lyth0s]

When it comes to pure paper investments I think Buffet does a great job (and hence a billionaire). But when it comes to a new technology, you should really be looking at people like Bill Gates who are also billionaires, but not necessarily because of good paper investments, but instead for inventing new disruptive technologies (computers).

See the similarities of Bitcoins to computers? You will also get very similar responses from the general public. Most people don't understand disruptive technology until it's already all around them and in their own hands.

http://www.geekcipher.com/technology/how-bitcoin-is-similar-to-early-public-opinion-of-computers-and-the-internet/

[DooMAD]

In the last thread where this topic came up and Buffet said something equally as short-sighted, I made an off-the-cuff comment about dinosaurs being extinct for a reason, which people took issue with because Buffet is such a renowned investor.  So if he's not an idiot, as some are suggesting, you really have to stop and ask why he keeps saying stuff like this.  Is it because he genuinely doesn't understand the fundamentals of it?  Or is it more likely that he does understand and recognises the potential to undermine an entrenched system that he knows how to exploit for gain?  There has to be some sort of agenda at play if he's not simply ignorant.

[darkangel11]

If the only thing he sees is a way to send money, he has no clue what bitcoin is.

[lyth0s]

If the only thing he sees is a way to send money, he has no clue what bitcoin is.

Right. Or he is at least trying to make it look like that is it's only purpose secondary to an alternative motive.